Saturday, Nov 05, 2016 at 21:04
" I have a 2006 SR5 Hilux 3 Litre Turbo Diesel "
My Hilux is three years older than yours. It is a 3 litre diesel non turbo manual. Toyota will most likely say your model must use a WDH over a certain ball weight like they do with
mine.
Your model had not long been released when I bought
mine. I emailed Toyota and asked them about off road towing. Their reply was based on the current model i.e yours. I think from memory it has a maximum capacity of 2250kg or close to that. Its competitors all had around 3000kg at that time. This resulted in a lot of criticism being directed at the Hilux on net forums.
Toyota's reply was yes it will tow its maximum in off road conditions but DO NOT tow at all in soft dry sand.
Other manufacturers told me to reduce the maximum capacity off road but did not say by how much. Land Rover did give a reduced figure. Their Defender comes down from 3500kg on road to only 1500kg off road.
It is never a good idea to load a car to it its maximum and then take it into the worst conditions that it is ever likely to encounter. If they were built to stand up to that, their purchase price would be about double.
If you look at the cars in that bent ute link that I gave you, you can bet they all have some kind of non genuine aftermarket
suspension alterations. You can also bet that all of those aftermarket parts came through unscratched, it is just the rest of the car that broke.
If I was going to tow that trailer that you are looking at, I would want nothing smaller than a Landcruiser ute. There would be very little left in reserve if you used a Hilux and that is not good for safety and reliability.
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